RAISE THE PROOF
Mighty mid-major Zags out to blow glass ceiling off college basketball
GLENDALE, Ariz. — North Carolina has waited 364 days to return to the national championship game. Gonzaga has waited forever. The Tar Heels seek redemption. The Bulldogs seek respect. Monday night’s national title game features teams that share a (No. 1) seed, a dream, and little more. The champion will be a national brand or a stranger to the national stage. When the final buzzer sound sat University of Phoenix Stadium, North Carolina will stand where it always plans to be — or Gonzaga will float where it once imagined it could never be.
“We’re different. We’re the same, but we’re different,” said 18th-year Gonzaga coach Mark Few. “I don’t think we pretend or think we’re anywhere near the level with the tradition of Carolina or Duke or Kentucky, but at the same time, I think we do feel we’ve been a national entity for quite some time. We feel we can compete with anybody in the country on any given night, but we understand we don’t have that tradition that dates back 40, 50, 60 years.
The teams are similar — big, balanced and experienced squads capable of dominating on either end of the floor — but the programs are barely the same species.
North Carolina (32-7) is playing in its 11th national title game — and fourth under Roy Williams — and looking to win the school’s sixth national championship; the one that eluded it when Villanova’s Kris Jenkins became a tournament legend last year.
In search of their first title since 2009, the Tar Heels are attempting to become the third team to win a national cham
pionship after losing the previous year’s title game (1982 North Carolina, 1991 Duke), while hoping to avoid becoming the fifth team to lose consecutive championship games.
A win would put another banner in the overcrowded rafters of the Dean Dome. A loss would mean everything to the hundreds of small schools hoping to mimic Gonzaga’s rare journey from obscurity to the top of Everest.
“I definitely think there will be a strong mid-major contingent pulling for us,” longtime assistant Tommy Lloyd said. “One of the coolest things was we were supposed to do this. We were ranked No. 1 this year. We were that good. It’s not like we had three upsets to get here and we hit two buzzer-beaters.
“That’ s gratifying and reassuring. It’s earned. It’s deserved. It’s not like a one-hit wonder, or an anomaly.”
In 1999, Gonzaga looked like a one-hit wonder, briefly becoming America’s favorite team as a 10-seed making the Elite Eight in its second NCAA Tournament. Since then, the Bulldogs have made 18 straight tournament appearances, long ago burying its identity as John Stockton’s alma mater.
Still, Gonzaga (37-1) is the first West Coast Conference team to play in a national championship game since 1956, and with a win, the Bulldogs would become the first team outside of a power basketball conference to win the national title since 1990 (UNLV), along with the first team west of Kansas to win a national title in 20 years.
With a win, Gonzaga would also have the fewest losses of any team since Indiana went undefeated in 1976.
“I think we are the best team in the tournament,” senior Jordan Mathews sai d. “If we’re David at 37-1, then who wouldn’t be David?”
In most games, North Carolina is Goliath. In many eyes, Gonzaga still isn’t tall enough for this ride.
“The perception was the same all year long, Gonzaga was good, but played in a weak conference, wasn’t battletested, couldn’t get over the hump,” leading-scorer Nigel Williams-Goss said. “I’m glad we were able to get to this
point and [quiet] all the naysayers and have a chance to play for a national championship.
“If you look at history, it would be David vs. Goliath, but you have two No. 1 teams playing in the national championship. It doesn’t get any more evenly matched than that.”
Appropriately, a win over an all-time blue blood sits between a so-called mid-major standing above all of college basketball.
“If we come out with a win, I’d like to see what everybody has to say,” Gonzaga sophomore Josh Perkins said. “If that does happen, I’m not sure what anybody can say.”
Nothing. Ever again.